Managers of flying target shooting clubs automatize their stands to reduce operating costs. But some actions are difficult to compress or modify. Loading targets into the machines, for example, requires a time during which the installation must be down, this time varying according to the number of machines and the relative positions thereof.
WO-A-2012/032001 discloses a target launching machine with a support and a barrel mounted with the ability to rotate on the support. The barrel has columns at its periphery wherein targets intended to be launched are stacked. The capacity of the barrels varies according to the height and the number of columns. In the end, the number of targets on a launching machine is limited by several factors.
The most important limiting factor is that only one column is associated with a set of rods forming a compartment, the barrel preferably having several compartments.
However, the need to increase the number of targets in a barrel is growing. For optimization purposes, flying target shooting facilities require increasingly capacitive machines. The reloading of machines is a more or less important constraint, depending on its frequency. For safety reasons, it requires a break in activity, the duration of which is linked to the relative positions of the machines, their distance, the structure that houses them, which can be raised, for example a column, or which can be closed and have a limited space, as well as the number of structures.
Thus, it is desirable that the barrels containing the targets should be of the multi-column type. The low relative strength of the lowest targets in a column limits the height of the associated column and in the case of a closed structure, regulations define the dimensional constraints. It is therefore not possible to increase the height of the columns to load more targets into a barrel of such a launching machine. Moreover, this is made impossible by the housing of such a target launching machine in an often cramped frame, wherein the frame roof is very close to the upper surface of the barrel of the launching machine.
Typically, columns are reloaded by inserting stacks of targets from above into each column. The number of targets per stack to reload the machine is thus limited by the distance between the top of the barrel and, in the case of a machine housed in a structure, the roof of said receiving structure. For most facilities, a stack can consist of 3 to 6 or more targets. Thus, reloading target launching machines is long and laborious. This results in a significant down-time cost.
The issue this invention is based on is, for the barrel of a launching machine comprising at least one column at least partially delimited by a rod, to facilitate the filling of the column with targets.